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f LIBRARY OF CONGRF^^ N 

STATES OF AMERSCA. 



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AN 



ADDRESS 



AT THE FUNERAL OF 



Hon. Roger Sherman Baldwin, 



PEBEUAET 23, 1863, 



BY 



SAMUEL W. S. DUTTON, 

Pastor of the North Cu lrcu in New Haven, 



X'XrBXilSHEID B-H" E,EQ,-U-EST. 




NEW HAVEN" : 

PRINTED BY THOMAS J. STAFFORD. 

1863. 



ADDRESS. 



The shadow of a great bereavement is upon ns. A strong 
pillar of our community and of our commonwealth is broken. 
One who has long been universally respected and admired 
for his eminent power, worth, and usefulness; who has borne 
the highest offices in the gift of our State, both within its 
own sphere and in its relations to the l^ational Government, 
and borne them with excellent ability and integrity ; one 
who has for many years been in the foremost rank of that 
high and honorable profession which is employed in ascer- 
taining and administering justice ; one who, in the sacred 
relations of domestic life, was regarded with tender and 
reverent aifection by wife, and children, and children's child- 
ren, and a wide circle of kindred — has passed away ; and 
his lifeless body is now before us, ready for the last earthly 
resting place. And he has passed away xinexpectedly ^ crea- 
ting the general feeling of surprise and disappointment, as 
well as of grief. For, though he had reached his threescore 
years and ten, we did not realize it ; and none would have 
thought it, who observed his erect form, his firm, quick stej), 
his undimmed eye, his unabated natural force, and especially 
the fullness of his power in the services of his profession. 
His death seems like the fall of a star from its zenith. Con- 
sidering his vigor, the longevity of his family, and his re- 
markable health (for he has not had a day of real sickness 
until this fatal one for more than forty years), we had expected 
to rely on him during many years yet of undiminished useful- 



ness. And on liis professional brethren, who are assembled 
here in sorrow, the blow follows quickly after one recently re- 
ceived by them in the death of another eminent member of 
the Bar in this city, near in age and very near in friendship to 
him whom we now mourn.* One of the last public acts of 
the friend whom we bury to-day, was to assist in bearing to 
burial the body of his friend and ours. United in life, in 
death they are scarcely divided. These twin lights of the 
law — alas, they shine no more among the living ! 

Before we convey to the grave the body of our friend, whom 
the places that have known him will know no more forever, it 
is right that we should soothe our sorrow, and gather lessons 
of wisdom, by a brief review of his life and estimate of his 
character. 

RoGEK Shekman Baldwin w^as born in New Haven, Janu- 
ary 4:th, 1793, the second son of Simeon and Rebecca (Sher- 
man) Baldwin. He was of the best New England stock on 
both the paternal and the maternal side. His father, wlio 
passed away from among us only twelve years since, in his 
ninetieth year, universally respected and beloved for his sound 
judgment, fairness, candor, integrity, benevolence, and piety, 
was Bepresentative of the State in the Congress of the United 
States, and for many years was one of the Judges of the 
Superior Court and the Supreme Court of Errors ; the third 
in the line of descent from John Baldwin, who was one of the 
Puritan emigrants, that accompanied their pastors, Rev. 
Messrs. Davenport, Prudden, and "Whitfield, from the Counties 
of Bucks, Surrey, and Kent in England, and began the settle- 
ment of New Haven, Milford, and Guilford ; himself after- 
ward uniting with thirty-four other proprietors to settle the 



* Hon. Dennis Kimberly. 



town of Korwicli. His motlier was the daugliter of Roger 
Sherman, of New Haven, justly renowned as one of tlie Com- 
mittee which reported the Declaration of Independence, and 
one of the signers of that instrument, one of the ablest mem- 
bers of the Convention which formed the Constitution of the 
United States, a Representative and Senator in Congress, a 
profound and sagacious statesman, an upright man, and an 
exemplary Christian. This mother died when he was two 
years old; and her place was vacant till five years after, 
when it was admirably filled by her sister, Elizabeth, another 
daughter of Hon. Roger Sherman, whose care and love he 
was permitted to share, and to whom he was allowed to pay 
filial reverence and affection, till thirteen years since, in 1850, 
when she deceased at the age of eighty-five. Such were his 
privileges as to parentage and early training. His prepara- 
tion for College in its first stages was with a teacher in ]S^ew 
Canaan, and afterwards in the Hopkins Grammar School of 
this city, in which he has always taken a deep interest, and of 
which he was the oldest surviving trustee. He entered Yale 
College in the autumn of 1807, and graduated at the early 
age of eighteen, with honor, speaking at Commencement an 
Oration " On the Genius of a Free Government." Imme- 
diately after graduation he studied law in his father's oflice 
in this city, and in the earliest Law School of the country, that 
at Litchfield, under, the able and brilliant tuition of Judge 
Reeve and Judge Gould. At the termination of his course of 
legal study, Judge Gould wrote to his father. Judge Baldwin, 
" I restore your son, somewhat improved, as I hope and be- 
lieve. At any rate, no student from our oflice ever passed a 
better examination." He was admitted to the Bar in 1814, 
and devoted himself to the practice of the law with unremit- 
ting industry, with intense mental application, and with en- 
thusiastic love, for fifty years, with the exception of the 



periods when be was engaged in special political service ; and 
tliese could liardlybe considered an exception, for he was more 
or less occupied with law all the time, though never to the 
neglect of his official duties. 

In 1826, Mr. Baldwin was a member of the Kew Haven 
Common Council, and in 1828 one of the Aldermen. In 1837 
he was elected a member of the State Senate, and was re- 
elected in 1838, when he was chosen President ^^ro tempore 
of that body. In 1810 he was elected a Representative from 
New Haven in the General Assembly, and was chosen again 
in the following year. In 1814: he was Governor of Connec- 
ticut, and was chosen again to the same office the next year, 
1815. By the death of Hon. Jabez "W. Huntington, Nov. 1st, 
181:7, there was a vacancy in the representation of Connecticut 
in the Senate of the United States. It was tlie duty of the 
Governor of the State to fill the vacancy by appointment 
until it could be filled by election at the meeting of the Legisla- 
ture in the following May. Governor Bissell, it was said, had 
not a moment's hesitation as to wliom he should select. He 
at once sent the appointment to Governor Baldwin ; and he 
took his seat in the Senate of the United States, at the begin- 
ning of the session in December, 1817. At the session of the 
Legislature in the following May, he was elected to fill the un- 
expired term of Judge Huntington, which continued till 1851. 
Since that period he has devoted himself exclusively to his 
profession, holding no official position, except that he was one 
of the two Electors at large on the ticket for the election of 
President Lincoln, and, by appointment of Gov. Buckingham, 
was a member of the " Peace Congress," so called, which was 
invited by the Governor and Legislature of Virginia to meet 
in Washington, shortly before the inauguration of our present 
chief mao;istrate. 



Haying thus traced the outline of Governor Baldwin's life, 
let US now consider his services and characteristics as a lawyer 
and as a statesman. 

"We have seen that the chief part of more than fifty years 
has been devoted by him to close application to the study and 
practice of law. Let us then, first, consider him as a Lawyer. 

Some of his moral qualities deserve here the earliest notice, 
since they underlay his services and character in the depart- 
ment of law, and indeed in the department of State as well. 

Governor Baldwin was earnestly devoted to the right. He 
had an ardent love and conscientious regard for that of which 
law is designed to be the expression and application, justice. 
This he obsei*ved and sought through life with almost passion- 
ate zeal, and wath pure and strict integrity. Ko temptation, 
no consideration of personal profit or reputation, or any other 
consideration, could make him swerve from it. Justice was 
enthroned in his heart, and in his intellect. He would indeed, 
as in fidelity bound, present the strongest view of his client's 
case, for he regarded himself not as a judge but as an advocate ; 
yet never in violation of the truth. Indeed, he was confident 
that, on the whole, taking the weight of his own character into 
view, truthful pleading was the best pleading for his clients. 

Katurally connected with this love of the right, was his pe- 
culiar regard for those whose rights are wrested from them, or 
infringed, or disregarded. This made him a strong friend of 
that race who have encountered an extraordinary share of 
earth's wrongs and miseries, especially of those among them 
who are deprived of libert3^ This trait came to him by heredi- 
tary title on both sides of the house, and was strengthened 
by filial associations and memories. For he was the grandson 
on his mother's side of one who, as member of a Committee 
for this nation at its birth, reported for adoption, and signed 
with his own hand for publication to the world, the declaration 



that the Creator has endowed all men with an inalienable right 
to liberty. And his father was one of the founders and most 
active members, and Secretary, of an Anti-Slavery Society, in- 
stituted soon after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, 
called " The Connecticut Society for the promotion of freedom, 
and for the relief of persons unlawfully held in bondage ;" a 
Society to whose origin his uncle. Rev. Ebenezer Baldwin, one 
of the most promising and heroic of the clerical martyrs of our 
national freedom, whom Chancellor Kent, his pupil, eulogizes 
as " a great and excellent man," contributed by his writings, 
though he did not. live to witness its operation. This feature 
in Mr. Baldwin was strengthened by an incident (for cir- 
cumstances contribute largely to form character) in his early 
legal practice. A colored man in IsTew Haven, supposed to 
be a slave of Hon. Henry Clay, was, at the instance of a 
friend of Mr. Clay in this city, and at Mr. Clay's request, seized 
and bound, and put on board a vessel at the dock, to be taken to 
New York and Kentuckj^ In great haste, the colored man's 
friends called on Mr. Baldwin, who had then jnst begun prac- 
tice. He warmly espoused the case, though against strong in- 
iluences, and had the man immediately brought on a writ of 
habeas corpus before a judge of the Superior Conrt, and ear- 
nestly plead his cause. The case was clear, for there was no 
legal evidence that the man was a fugitive slave, and he was 
at once released. Some years after, Mr. Baldwin, being in 
Boston, stepped into a barber's shop to be shaved, when the 
head of the establishment, revealing himself as the man whom 
he had delivered, overwhelmed him with expressions of grati- 
tude, and of desire to render him any service. It was this 
well-known trait of Mr. Baldwin, wliich, as well as his em- 
inent legal ability, caused him to be sought for in like cases, 
and particularly in that most conspicuous and imj)ortant case 
which he ever argued, the case of the kidnapped and self-res- 



9 

cued Africans of the Amistad; wlioni the Executive authori- 
ties of our national government persistently endeavored to de- 
liver to Spanish bondage. 

Another moral trait — or rather, partly moral and partly in- 
tellectual — affecting his legal practice, was a remarkable union 
of modesty and good taste, which kept his personality out of 
sight in an address or argument. He never obtruded himself 
between his subject and his auditors, or in any way turned 
their attention from his theme to himself. Any one who has 
heard him, or has read his speeches and arguments, will readi- 
ly accord with the opinion, that it would be difficult to find 
any speeches or arguments in which there is a more sparing 
use of the first person singular of the personal pronoun. 

As to Mr. Baldwin's intellectual qualities and qualifications 
as a lawyer, it should be observed that he had the first great re- 
quisite, strong perceptive and perspicacious power in reference 
to truth on questions of law and fact — the power to look over 
and through a case, and apprehend and comprehend it, in its 
chief points, and in its minor features, and these in their rela- 
tive importance — the power to understand what the case is. 

Then he had a strong faculty of order, which enabled him to 
give a logical and clear arrangement of the features of a case, 
first in his own mind, and then for presentation to other minds. 

He had great acuteness and discrimination, by which he per- 
ceived the differences of things, and clearly distinguished be- 
tween them, however similar in appearance. If he had any 
intellectual quality preeminent above others in his mind, it 
was this, so important in the practice of the law for disentan- 
gling and clearing up complicated, confused, and difficult ques- 
tions. 

He had lars-e w^ealth of leo-al learnino;. He understood the 
law thoroughly, in its great principles, and in its particular 
precepts and statutes ; and understood it all the better because 



10 

lie loved its animating spirit, the spirit of justice. And he had 
equally great pertinency and skill in the application of his 
legal learning to his cases. It has been said of him that he was 
accustomed to read over anew every year some of the more ele- 
mentary books of the law, and was enabled each time, by the 
light of his practical experience, to see new relations and ap- 
plications. 

He had, also, singular power of persistence and tenacity — of 
pursuing out a principle or position to its farthest reach, and 
holding on to it as long as there was anything to be made of it. 

He had, too, a remarkable power of concentrated and intense 
mental application to a subject or case, which made him its 
complete master. 

He had, also, most thorough and unremitting industry in the 
preparation of liis cases, both as to fact and law. He worked 
hard on them himself; and he made his clients work also, in 
gathering for him the materials for a successful suit or defense. 

And then, to crown all these qualities, he had, for the pre- 
sentation of his cases or subjects, a most remarkable power of 
language, for the use of words and the construction of sentences. 
He had complete control of good English, both Saxon and 
classical. And so fully did he have his subject in his thought 
and in his power of expression, that he said just what he need- 
ed and wished to say, in all its modifications and qualifications, 
without one wrong or misplaced word, or any incompleteness 
of a sentence, even in its minutest parts. He was almost never 
known, in his extemporaneous speaking, to construct a sentence 
ungrammatically or in any way imperfectly, but always seem- 
ed, when commencing a sentence, to see its end from its begin- 
ning, and to bring each part in its proper form into its proper 
place, however elaborated and complicated by modifying or 
qualifying clauses. His language was also both pertinent and 
-dense, as well as pure. In its use he went right onward to the 



11 

point aimed at, never turning out of the way for ornament or 
anything else, and employing no redundant words. 

These qualities, in such degree, made Governor Baldwin one 
of the ablest of lawyers. Accordingly he has been so regarded, 
and has had for many years a large practice. His arguments 
and opinions have been highly valued, not only as they have 
been presented in our courts, but as they have been prepared 
and printed in brief, on the application of parties out of court, 
and in other States. His practice has been largely in the higher 
classes of cases, though he did not refuse small cases when he 
could serve in them the cause of justice ; and he devoted him- 
self to them as thoroughly and as scrupulously as to those 
which involved great sums and promised large fees. 

One case which Governor Baldwin conducted with all his 
powers, and with illustrious success, is so important in its na- 
tional and philanthropic bearings, that it deserves notice in 
this sketch of his life — the case of the Africans of the Amistad, 
in the year ISll. Those men, stolen from their own country, 
and feloniously imported into Cuba, were by their owners (so 
called) put on board the schooner Amistad, to be taken from 
one port to another of that island. After leaving port, tliey 
rose and took forcible possession of the vessel, and attempted 
to return to their native land ; but, after various vicissitudes at 
sea, were at length found near the shore of Long Island Sound, 
Mdthin the territorial limits of the State of I^ew York, by the 
officers of one of our naval vessels, and were ultimately brought 
into custody of the Court of the United States for the District 
of Connecticut, and were placed for safe keeping in the New 
Haven jail. The Spanish minister at "Washington demanded 
that they should be delivered up by our Government to their 
Spanish claimants; and our national Executive was ready and 
determined to comply with the demand. But, fortunately, 
they were in the custody of a Court of Justice. Some gentle- 



12 

men especially interested in behalf of the oppressed, at once 
applied to Mr. Baldwin to undertake their case, and associated 
with him Theodore Sedgwick, Esq., of Kew York, and Hon. 
John Quincy Adams. Mr. Baldwin entered into the case with 
absorbing interest. He saw at once that it was very impor- 
tant to communicate watli these Africans, and learn their story. 
But they could not speak our language ; and no one here, or 
anywhere within reach, could speak theirs. He called to his 
assistance that eminent linguist and ardent philanthropist, his 
kinsman, the late Professor Gibbs of Yale College. Prof. 
Gibbs gave his whole heart at once to the case. He obtained 
from those Africans something of their vocabulary. With 
these words and sounds he went to New York. He visited all 
the crews of the foreign ships at the wharves, and at the board- 
ing houses, and at length, to his delight, found a young man, 
James Covey by name, who was acquainted both with the En- 
glish languao^e and with the dialect of these heathen Africans. 
He brought him to New Haven, and found him of essential 
service in investigating and presenting the case. In the man- 
agement and argument of the case before the District Court of 
Connecticut, Mr. Baldwin was assisted by Hon. Theodore 
Sedgwick of New York. They gained their cause, and the 
Africans were pronounced free. But the Executive authori- 
ties at "Washington appealed the case to the Supreme Court of 
the United States. And there, before that high court of the 
nation, Mr. Baldwin made, and with a successful issue, one 
of the most illustrious arguments ever oifered there — an argu- 
ment which will endure as part of the history of law, justice, 
and liberty. 

Mr. Baldwin's view of the importance of the case may be 
presented, by quoting a single paragraph from his exordium : 

" This case is not only one of deep interest in itself, as affect- 
ing the destiny of the unfortunate Africans whom I represent 



13 

(whom he had just described as ' contending for freedom and 
for life with two powerful governments arrayed against them) ; 
but it involves considerations deeply affecting our national 
charjacter in the eyes of the whole civilized world, as well as 
questions of power on the* part of the government of the Uni- 
ted States, which are regarded with anxiety and alarm by a 
large portion of our citizens. It presents, for the first time, 
the question whether that government, which was established 
for the promotion of justice, which was founded on the great 
principles of the Revolution, aS proclaimed in the Declaration 
of Independence, can, consistently with the genius of our in- 
stitutions, become a party to proceedings for the enslavement 
of human beings, cast upon our shores, and found in the con- 
dition of freemen within the territorial limits of a fkee and 

SOVEREIGN STATE." 

Of that argument John Quincy Adams said, when he rose 
before the Court to present his own : " The rights of my clients 
to their lives and liberties have already been defended by my 
learned friend and colleague in so cible and complete a vianner 
as leaves me scarcely anything to say, and I feel that ^wchyull 
Justice has been done to their interests, that any fault or im- 
perfection of mine will merely be attributed to its true cause." 
Of that argument Chancellor Kent wrote: "It is very logical, 
and absolutely unanswerable in all the points taken. , . . This 
forensic performance alone would give its author high pro- 
fessional eminence." 

Ihave thought that a brief sketch of Governor Baldwin's 
character as a lawyer by one of his own profession would be 
more reliable than my own, and therefore I requested one of a 
member of the Bar of this city,* with which I will close this 
part of my address. 

" Governor Baldwin possessed every one of the characteris- 

* Henry B. Harrison, Esq. 



14 

tics and faculties of a great lawyer. All those characteristics 
and faculties he possessed in a high degree, and many of them 
in a preeminent degree. In anj forum — anywhere — in "West- 
minster Hall, in tlie Supreme Court at Washington, or at any 
other bar where the Common Law is understood and practiced, 
Governor Baldwin would have been regarded, not merely as a 
skillful practitioner, but as a man entitled to rank among the 
great lawyers of his day. 

" He possessed a comprehensive and thorough acquaintance 
with the science of the law. He was master of its lore. He 
understood it in its great doctrines and in its details. In short, 
he had that legal scholarship, that legal acumen, that legal 
knowledge, which no intellect but a high one can attain at all, 
and wdiich even a gi'eat intellect cannot fully acquire without 
long, thorough, and conscientious labor. 

" Although Governor Baldwin was powerful before the jury, 
he was more truly in his proper element when engaged in tlie 
discussion of questions of law before the Court. A strong an- 
tagonist in trying questions of fact, he was especially formida- 
ble in the argument of questions of law, pure and simple. 

" His arguments, wdiether addressed to the Court or the jury, 
were marked by uniform purity and transparency of style. 
His English w^as perfect. He was always able to say, without 
embarrassment or hesitation, precisely wliat he wished to say ; 
guarding wdth proper qualifications, exceptions, and limitations, 
when necessary, every sentence and phrase, so that his idea, 
/hen expressed, stood forth precisely in the form in whicli he 
v^ished it to appear. Rarely, if ever, perhaps never, has he 
been known, in speaking, to construct an entangled and im- 
perfect sentence. His steady and clear intellect so controlled 
liis tongue, that, witli him, every sentence spontaneously as- 
sumed its fit beginning, its appropriately arranged contents, 
and its accurate and graceful termination. 



15 

" His oratory was not often impassioned. It was dignified, 
logical, clear, and convincing, addressed to the intellect rather 
than to the sympathies. He had the power, however, which 
he not unfrequently exercised when his own feelings were ex- 
cited, of appealing in terms of imj)ressive earnestness to the 
higher sentiments and sympathies of men. Personal dignity, 
the sense of honor, contempt for meanness and fraud, indigna- 
tion at corruption and wrong, these and such like sentiments 
of the human heart he knew how to touch and inflame, when 
his- own heart felt them burning within it, 

"In guarding the interests of his clients, his watchfulness was 
incessant, l^o circumstance which mio-ht affect those interests, 
favorably or unfavorably, escaped his notice, or failed to receive 
his full attention. He never abandoned, without a vigorous 
contest, any claim, great or small, which he thought that 
his client could rightfully make, and which it was important, 
in the slightest degree, for him to make. 

" It is needless to say, in conclusion, that Governor Baldwin, 
in his relations to his clients, to the Court, a»d to his profes- 
sional brethren, was always courteous, sincere, upright, and 
honorable. His professional character, like his personal char- 
acter, in whatever light it may be viewed, stands forth without 
one solitary stain upon it." 

To this testimony of one of Governor Baldwin's professional 
brethren, I may add, in a single sentence, that of another, now, 
alas, no more among the living. It was the well considered 
and deliberately expressed opinion of General Kimberly, from 
which there would probably be no intelligent dissent, that 
" Governor Baldwin was the ablest lawyer that Connecticut has 
ever produced in any part of her history." 

Let us now consider the course and character of Governor 
Baldwin as a Statesman. 



16 

This can be done more briefly, becaiise his official service 
was much more brief than his service in tlie law, and because 
the moral and intellectual qualities, already described, which 
characterized him as a lawyer, characterized him also as a states- 
man. 

Governor Baldwin's ruling principles in political life were jus- 
tice, humanity, patriotism, and fidelity to the Constitution and 
the laws ; of which, as well as of the history of the country, he 
had a most thorough knowledge, both comprehensive and mi-, 
nute. He believed in policy, and was an able adviser and 
legislator on questions of policy. But in all questions of poli- 
cy which were also questions of morals, he believed that the 
true policy was to do right. 

His services in the State Senate in 1837 and 1838, and still 
more in the House of Eepresentatives in 1840 and 1841, 
brought him prominently to the notice of the people of the 
State. He was at once thought of, and had been thought of be- 
fore, as candidate for Governor. But some, especially of those 
who had been accustomed to control nominations, though ad- 
mitting his preeminent ability, thought that he was too up- 
right and puritanical in his style of character to be a popular 
candidate; yet when he was nominated, in 1844 and 1845, 
against his strong wish and protest, it was found that no man 
of his i^arty was stronger with the people, and for that very 
reason. 

He never sought office, thougli at one time, doubtless, he 
desired it. He would never do anything to obtain a nomina- 
tion, or, when nominated, to secure an election. It was with 
him a fixed principle, from which he never swerved, tliat the 
office should seek the man and not the man the office ; and 
that a man should take office in a deliberative body untram- 
nieled by pledges, or any influences which would prevent 



or endanger fair and full deliberation, and a decision according 
to truth and justice. 

His administration, as Governor of Connecticut, was wise 
and able. His annual Addresses to the Legislature, at the 
opening of the sessions, are models, as it respects dignity, pro- 
priety, chastened eloquence, and just and comprehensive views 
of the interests to be guarded and provided for by legisla- 
tion. Chancellor Kent said of them that " they recall the 
bright days of the Trumbulls, Ellsworths, and Shermans, who 
threw such a lustre on the golden annals of the State." It 
may well be doubted whether the annals of the State contain 
any gubernatorial Addresses or Messages superior in ability to 
those of 1S44 and 1845. 

Governor Baldwin entered the Senate of the United States 
in 184:7. He was an ornament to that august body, and took 
high rank in it, when it contained some of the ablest men who 
were ever on its floor — Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, Sew- 
ard- He devoted himself with great industry to his duties in 
that high place, and, during the four years of his service there, 
very few were the members who made more well considered 
and able speeches than he. The countr}^ at that period had 
begun to be agitated by a series of measures, designed for the 
extension and strengthening of slavery. It commenced with the 
annexation of Texas, was continued in the Mexican war, and 
the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and has ended in the present rebel- 
lion. The annexation of Texas was proposed and effected 
while Mr. Baldwin was Governor of Connecticut. Those who 
were opposed to that measure will agree that it will be difficult 
to find anywhere better condensed arguments against it than 
were given in his two gubernatorial Addresses, When he en- 
tered the Senate, in 1847, the Mexican war, growing out of the 
annexation of Texas, was in progress. He was intensely op- 
posed to that war, because it was, in his judgment, a war of 



18 

. * 

unjust aggression by a powerful nation on a weak neighbor, and 

was waged for the purpose of extending slavery, by a nation 
which had published to the world its solemn declaration that 
liberty is the inalienable right of all men. lie opposed that 
war, and the increase of territory by means of it, with all his 
power. And all measures for the extension of human bondage 
met in that body no oj^ponent more vigilant, more firm, more 
persistent than he. When it was apparent that new territory 
would probably be added by conquest from Mexico, he intro» 
duced and advocated resolutions to exclude slavery from all 
territory tliereafter added to our country, and to protect by 
treaty the Mexican people in the conquered or ceded territory 
from the restoration of the slavery which they had once banish- 
ed.* It is worthy of remark, in this connection, that in his po- 
sition at that time he had the support of the whole people of 
Connecticut, of all parties, and indeed of all the Free States 
except Illinois. And the Legislature of Connecticut sent to 
him, to be presented to the Senate, resolutions to that effect, 
passed by a strong vote, all parties concurring. 

Governor Baldwin's speeches in the Senate were on quite a 
variety of topics, but the most elaborate and extended were 

* The resolutions are as follows : 

"Resolved, That if any territory shall be hereafter acquired by the United 
States, or annexed thereto, the aet by which such territory is acquired or annexed, 
whatever such act may be, should contain an unalterable fundamental article or 
provision, whereby slavery or involuntarj' servitude, except as punishment for 
crime, shall be forever excluded from the territory acquired or annexed. 

" Resolved, That in any cession of territory that may be acquired as the result 
of the war with Mexico, the desire of that Republic, expressed by her commission- 
ers in their negotiations with Mr. Trist, to provide for the protection of the in- 
habitants of the ceded territory against the introduction of the system of human 
slavery therein, by a stipulation to that effect in any treaty that may be made, 
cannot, consistently with the rights of those inhabitants, or with the principles of 
justice and liberty, which have been proclaimed to the world as the basis of our 
institutions, be disregarded or denied." 



19 

uj)on the great question of the time in various forms. Chief 
among these are his speeches on the Mexican war and slavery 
extension as connected with it, on the admission of California 
to the Union, on the Compromise bill of 1850, especially that 
part of it which contained a new Fugitive Slave Law, and on 
the insertion of an anti-slavery clause in the bill for the admis- 
sion of Oregon. His most spirited speech, probably, in that 
body, was an impromptu one made in answer to Mr. Mason of 
"V^irginia, who had disparaged Connecticut, in comparison with 
Virginia, because, in ceding her western territory to the United 
States after the war of the revolution, she had retained three 
and a half millions of acres for private purjjoses. Governor 
Baldwin, -with ready command of history, immediately evin- 
ced, in a most eloquent manner, that, w^hile Virginia had re- 
served fourteen millions to bestow in bounties on her officers 
and soldiers, Connecticut had reserved but three and a half 
millions, and that for a school fund, her patriotic soldiers hav- 
ing volunteered without promise of bounty ; and this, when 
Virginia, with three times the population, sent only two-thirds 
as many men as Connecticut to the war which gave us author- 
ity over that western domain.* 

There was no part of Governor Baldwin's public life, in 
which he gave more anxious, arduous, and exhausting labor to 
his country than during the brief period when he was a mem- 
ber of the Peace Congress ; nor any, in the opinion of those 
who agree with him on matters of public policy, when he was 
more useful to his country. It was a time of great excitement 
and peril. The air seemed full of the elements of revolution 
and anarchy. Plots were formed and arrangements made, as 
he believed, to prevent the counting of the votes for President, 

* This speecli has become a Connecticut classic. It is in part incorporated in 
Ilollister's History of Connecticut, and also in Rev. Dr. Buslmell's " Tribute to 
Connecticut." 



20 

and, if that failed, to prevent the inauguration of the President 
by assassination or force. Great pressure was brought to bear on 
the members of the Peace Congress to make concessions which, 
as he thouglit, involved the triumph of slavery over freedom, and 
were utterly hostile to the spirit and design of the Constitution 
and the Union. Against all such concessions, among the firmest 
and strongest, none was firmer and stronger than he. Those 
who demanded these concessions found that, however it might 
be with others, no persuasions, no intimidations, no combina- 
tions, no influences of any kind, could move him. At length, 
a committee was appointed of one from each State repre- 
sented, to draw up a final result. He was the member of that 
committee from Connecticut. The majority of the commit- 
tee were in favor of proposing amendments to the Constitu- 
tion, making large concessions to slavery. The minority 
took the ground, that, for a body called and composed as that 
was, to initiate amendments to the Constitution in the manner 
proposed, would be unconstitutional and really revolutionary ; 
and they favored the calling of a constitutional convention, in 
the way provided by the Constitution for its own amendment. 
The report of the minority, with the accompanying resolution, 
he prepared with gi-eat 1-abor and care, and supported them in 
a strong speech. And though they were not adopted by the 
Convention, they neutralized and virtually defeated the opposite 
plan, and so stayed the tide ; which was what was hoped and 
designed.* 

Governor Baldwin's moral courage in obedience to convic- 

* " The undersigned, comprising a part of the minority of the Committee of 
one from each State, to whom was referred the consideration of the resohitions 
of the State of Virginia and the other States represented, and all propositions for 
the adjustment of existing differences between the States, with authority to report 
what they deem right, necessary, and proper to restore harmonj', and preserve 
the Union, entered upon the duties of the Committee with an anxious desire that 



21 

tions of duty, and his superiority and resistance to all selfish 
and personal considerations in public matters, were strikingly 



they might be able to unite in the recommendation of some plan, ■which, on due 
deliberation, should seem best adapted to maintain the dignity and authority of 
the Government of the United States, and at the same time secure to the people 
of every section that perfect equality of right to which they are entitled. 

"Convened, as we are, on the invitation of the Governor of Virginia, in pursu- 
ance of the resolutions of the General Assembly of that State, with an accom- 
panying expression of the deliberate opinion of that body, that unless the unhappy 
controversy which now divides the States shall be satisfactorily adjusted, a per- 
manent dissolution of the Union is inevitable ; and being earnestly desirous of an 
adjustment thereof, in concurrence with Virginia, in the spirit in which the Con- 
stitution was originally formed, and consistent with its principles, so as to afford 
to the people of all the States adequate security for all their rights, the attention 
of the undersigned was necessarily led to the consideration of the extent and 
equality of our powers, and to the propriety and expediency, under existing cir- 
cumstances, of a recommendation by this Conference Convention of any sjjecific 
action by Congress, whether of ordinary legislation or in reference to constitution- 
al amendments to be proposed by Congress on its own responsibility to the 
States. 

" A portion of the members of this Convention are delegated by the Legisla- 
tures of their respective States, and are required to act under their supervision 
and control ; while others are the representatives only of the Executives of their 
States, and, having no opportunity of consulting the immediate representatives of 
the people, can only act on their individual resiDonsibility. 

" Among the resolutions and propositions suggesting modes of adjustment ap- 
propriate to this occasion, which were brought to the notice of the Committee, 
were the resolutions of the State of Kentucky, recommending to her sister States 
to unite with her in an application to Congress for the calling of a Convention in 
the mode prescribed by the Constitution for proposing amendments thereto. 

" The undersigned, for the reasons set forth in the accompanying resolution, 
and others which have been herein indicated, is of opinion that the mode of ad- 
justment by a general Convention, as proposed by Kentucky, is the one which af- 
fords the best assurance of an adjustment acceptable to the people of every section, 
as it will afford to all the States who may desire amendments an opportunity of 
preparing them with care and deliberation, and in such form as they may deem it 
expedient to prescribe, to be submitted to the consideration and deliberate action 
of delegates duly chosen and invested with equal powers from all the States. 

" The undersigned did not, therefore, deem it expedient that any of the meas- 



22 

illustrated in many passages of his life, some instances of which 
should be given in this biographical sketch. 

About the year 1830, there was a plan projected by some per- 
sons in New Haven specially interested in the welfare of color- 
ed people, prominent among whom was Rev. S. S. Jocelyn, 
then pastor of the only church of colored people in the town, 
to establish a school of a higher grade, a sort of a collegiate in- 
stitute, for colored youth, on a plot of ground purchased for 
this purpose, in the extreme southwestern part of the city, 
wholly unoccupied then by dwellings. As soon as the project 
became known, a strong opposition arose, and an intense ex- 
citement was kindled in the community. The determination 

ures of adjustment proposed by the majority of the Committee should be reported 
to this body to be discussed or acted upon by them ; and he respectfully submits, 
as a substitute for the articles of amendment to the Constitution, reported by the 
majority of the Committee, the following preamble and resolution, and recom- 
mends the adoption thereof. 

"ROGER S. BALDWIN." 

"Whereas, unhappy differences exist, which have alienated from each other 
portions of the people of the United States, to such an extent as seriously to 
disturb the peace of the nation, and impair the regular and efficient action of 
the Government within the sphere of its constitutional powers and duties ; and 
whereas the Legislature of the State of Kentucky has made application to 
Congress to call a Convention for proposing amendments to the Constitution of 
the United States ; and whereas it is believed to be the opinion of the people 
of other States that amendments to the Constitution are, or may become, neces- 
sary to secure to the people of the United States, of every section, the full and 
equal enjoyment of their rights and liberties, so far as the same may depend 
for their security and protection on the powers granted to, or withheld from, 
the General Government, in pursuance of the national purposes for which it was 
ordained and established : 

" This Convention does therefore recommend to the several States to unite with 
Kentucky in her application to Congress to call a Convention for proposing amend- 
ments to the Constitution of the United States, to be submitted to the Legisla- 
tures of the several States, or to conventions therein, for ratification, as the one 
or the other mode of rotification may be proposed by Congress, in accordance 
with the provision in the fifth article of the Constitution." 






23 

was declared to prevent its accomplishment. A public raeet- 
inf; of the citizens was called to concentrate and express public 
sentiment against the project, which was represented as 
threatening disgrace to the community, and disaster to the col- 
lege. The greater part of those in high civil position were 
united in strong hostility to the plan, and some of them took a 
leading part in the meeting ; at which its only defender was 
Rev. S. S. ' Jocelyn, who, as one of its authors, was assailed 
with a torrent of opposition, and even personal abuse. In that 
meeting, Mr. Baldwin, though then a young man, and having 
no connection with the plan or its authors, arose, and endeav- 
ored to stem what he considered the evil current. There was 
a disposition to refuse him a hearing, and to prevent his speak- 
ing, by hissing and disturbance. But he said calmly and firm- 
ly that he trusted that his fellow citizens would allow him his 
right to be heard on that question of public interest ; and he 
went on to speak ably and eloquently of the rightfulness and 
wisdom of favoring, and of the wrongfulness and impolicy of 
opposing, a plan for the education of a class of persons, who 
most of all needed its elevating influences, and most of all were 
precluded from them. 

Another instance of a similar kind occurred in the year 1835. 
It was a time in the history of the country, never to be remem- 
bered without a blush, when, in various parts of the land, mobs 
against those called abolitionists were doing their deeds of de- 
struction and murder, and even torture — when a colored man 
was burned at the stake in St. Louis ; when the press of Elijah 
P. Lovejoy was destroyed at Alton, and his life was taken ; when 
Pennsylvania Kail was burned in Philadelphia, and Lucretia 
Mott, " that peerless woman," as she was called by Dr. Chan- 
ning, was rudely assailed ; when a citizen of Boston was led 
through its streets with a halter around his neck by a mob of 
" gentlemen of property and standing." Public meetings had 



24 

been lield in many places in all parts of the Northern States, 
presided over and conducted by men of high repute, in which 
resolutions were passed, of sympathy with slaveholders on ac- 
count of the assaults made by word and argument on their 
peculiar institution, and of opposition to all discussion of the 
abolition of slavery, A public meeting of this kind was called 
in New Haven for the purpose of expressing public sentiment 
by similar resolutions. Mr. Baldwin had looked on this course 
of events with great anxiety ; and he regarded such resolutions 
as a virtual and perilous denial of a right essential to the de- 
fense and progress of truth, righteousness, and freedom, and 
essential to the security and prosperity of free government, the 
right of free discussion. He determined to go to the meeting 
and express his sentiments on the subject. Wlien that deter- 
mination was known, his friends, legal, political, and personal, 
remonstrated with him. They urged that, however right his 
sentiments might be, it would be not only perilous to his 
reputation and usefulness, but utterly vain, to throw himself 
against a temporary civil whirlwind. He considered these re- 
monstrances deliberately and earnestly. Yet his convictions 
of duty were unshaken, and he resolved to go to the meeting 
and carry out his purpose. After the resolutions had been 
read, and several speeches had been made in tlieir favor and en- 
thusiastically received, he rose and began to express his dissent. 
A disturbance was at once commenced. He proceeded. The 
disturbance increased, and it was manifest that there was a de- 
termination to hiss him down, and prevent his speaking. With 
that intense energy of which he was so capable, he brought his 
clenched hands down on the desk before him, and exclaimed in 
resistless tone and manner, " I will be heard." And he 
was heard. The resolutions, of course, were passed. But his 
manly and truthful speech was not in vain. A pause of reflec- 



25 

tion was given to the storm ; many eyes were opened; andtlie 
tone of public sentiment was modified. 

Another instance, of a difierent kind, occurred, when the 
question was pending of his reelection to the Senate of the 
United States. Undoubtedly he had a strong desire for reelec- 
tion. This desire, though he never expressed it, was manifest 
to his friends. He had enjoyed his senatorial life. Its duties 
suited his style of mind, attainment, and character. He evi- 
dently appreciated his fitness for the place, and thought that 
therein he could best serve his country. But there was only a 
bare majority of Whigs in the Legislature. And some of them 
scrupled about voting for him, under an apprehension that in 
certain contingencies his course would not accord with the 
principles and policy of the party. Governor Baldwin's friends 
knew, from his previous expressions in conversation with them, 
that such an apprehension was groundless, and that all that 
was necessary to secure his reelection was, that he should put 
upon paper, for use among the members of the Legislature, 
what he had expressed to them ; and accordingly they pro- 
posed and urged that he should do it. But he firmly and per- 
sistently refused. He would not thus put himself in the posi- 
tion of a seeker for the ofiice. And he said that such a writ- 
ten expression would be considered in the light of a pledge, 
and that it was a principle, wliich he judged to be sound and 
obligatory, that a member of a deliberative body should have 
a mind untrammeled by pledges, and free to come to such 
(jonclusions as truth and evidence would produce. The result 
was, that he was not reelected : a result which he must have 
regarded as quite probal>le, but which could not make him 
swerve from a principle wliich he had intelligently and con- 
scientiously adopted. 

It may justly be added, that the political opponents of 



26 

Governor Baldwin, whatever they may have thought of his 
political positions and principles, have never questioned his 
moral courage, the purity of his motives, or liis lofty supe- 
riority to all mean policy and all selfish considerations. 

The reserve and reticence which were marked characteristics 
of Governor Baldwin, made him appear to those who did not 
know him somewhat distant and formal in manner, and perhaps 
produced on niany the impression of coldness, which, however, 
did him great injustice. Kindness of heart, sensitiveness to 
the suffering of those about him and readiness to relieve it, 
forwardness to give pleasure and confer happiness everj'where 
within his reach, were fundamental traits of his character. 
His tenderness of feeling extended itself even to the brute cre- 
ation, so that he could never willingly hurt or permit to be 
hurt any living creature, and was full of attentions to the do- 
mestic animals, the birds of the garden, and the like. He never 
failed to hang out liberally over his grounds in the early 
spring materials for the birds to build their nests with, and 
has sometimes, when a late snow had covered the ground, 
caused broad paths to be shoveled all about his j^ard and 
garden, that they might have access to their accustomed 
sources of food. During the sickness of a pet animal of one of 
his children, he has night after night got up from his bed and 
gone down to give it water or help it to an easier j)osition. 
This same softness of heart, deeper and stronger than mere 
politeness, was at tlie foundation of his uniform liberality, ur- 
banity, and courtesy, to which all who ever came in personal 
contact with him will bear willing witness. 

It now only remains to speak of Governor Baldwin's re- 
ligious character. 

Governor Baldwin never made any direct expression of his 
religious feelings — his views and hopes respecting himself — to 



27 

any one ; not, as it is believed, because his feelings were not 
engaged on that subject, or because they were not evangelical. 
He was very reticent as to his personal feelings on all subjects, 
and especially on the sacred subject of his relations to God. 
Many years since, (about twenty years), thinking it my duty, as 
his pastor, to endeavor to ascertain his religious condition, and 
to offer any aid that I could afford by private counsel, I sought 
an interview with him at his office. He treated me with 
marked civility and kindness. He said that he had great re- 
spect for Christianity, and fur its ordinances and ministers. 
He assured me that religion was a subject to which he was not 
indifferent, and which he did not neglect. But he added, 
that he felt an utter inability to express his personal feelings 
on that subject ; and was compelled to request his friends, who 
were anxious to know them, to judge of them by his course of 
life. Judging by this method, the one who has known him 
best, and who knows, if any one does, what practical Chris- 
tianity is, has been convinced for many years that he was a 
Christian man — ^^that his extraordinary devotion to the right 
included his relations to God, as well as his relations to men ; 
and that his conscientious regard to duty was the result of 
the essential religious principle, the principle of obedience 
to the will and authority of God. I have, myself, for some 
years past, believed that to be true, and that Governor 
Baldwin has regarded himself as a Christian. The inquiry, 
which has naturally arisen, whether he has not relied on 
his own righteousness for acceptance with God, has been 
satisfied by various indications that he believed in the gos- 
pel as it is — the gospel which reveals salvation by Christ 
alone, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the 
world. One of these indications was told me by a witness, 
a Christian friend of mine, not now among the living. More 
than twenty-five years ago, one of Governor Baldwin's sons, a 



28 

lad of eight years, was drawing nigh to death. The father 
stood by his sick and dying child, and directed him to Christ, 
and exhorted him to put his trust in Christ. This, in one of 
his sincerity and mental integrity, is decisive evidence that he 
believed, not in any system of self-righteousness, but in Christ 
as the Saviour of men. It has been evident that Governor 
Baldwin has frequently had the subject of professing religion in 
his thoughts, and I have no doubt that he has been kept from 
it by the fact, that it involved that expression and publicity of 
his personal feelings, for which he felt, as he stated it, an utter 
inability. 

In his recent fatal sickness he has received all its events with 
entire submission, and with the meekness of a child. Every- 
thing has been accepted as right. He has had evident satis- 
faction in the reading of the divine word ; and prayer offered 
daily at his bedside has been to him a manifest comfort and 
pleasure. 

He breathed his life away at last so gently that it was 
hardly known when he had gone. He has gone — and gone, we 
may believe, where the iniquity which he hated has no place, 
and the righteousness which he loved is pure and perfect.* 

A chief pillar of our community has fallen! Oh! how 

* Mr. Baldwin was married in 1820, to Emily Perkins, daughter of Enoch and 
Anna (Pitkin) Perkins, of Hartford. They have had nine children, of whom four, 
two sons and two daughters, survive, viz : George William, a Yale graduate of 
the class of 1853, settled in the practice of the law at Worcester, Mass., but at 
present in the army; Simeon Eben, graduated at Yale College in 1861, and now 
preparing himself to follow his father's profession in New Haven ; Elizabeth 
Wooster, married to Prof. William D. Whitney of Yale College; and Henrietta 
Perkins, married to Dwight Foster, Esq., of Worcester, Mass. Their two eldest 
sons, Edward Law and Roger Sherman, both graduated at Yale College, and edu- 
cated to the practice of the law, died in early manhood. The others, two sons 
and a daughter, died in childhood. 



29 



many pillars have fallen here within a few years— in the 
College, and in professional and industrial life! May God 
give to our men in early and middle age, wisdom, fidelity, 
strength, and grace to be pillars in their places. May they 
imitate the virtues of him whom we mourn to-day, especially 
his devotion to the right ; and may they make their devotion to 
the right thorough and consistent, comprehending their rela- 
tions to God as well as to meiL 



[From the Neio Ilaven Journal and Courier, Feb. 21«<, 1863.] 



%%ix %\ixm.\\ ialliluin. 



The members of the New Haven Bar met at the Superior Court Room yester- 
day afternoon, to pay a tribute to tlie memory of the late Governor Baldwin. 
Hon. Ralph I. IngersoU, the " father of the Bar," was in the chair, and Arthur D. 
Osborne was Secretary. The meeting was a very impressive one, and exhibited 
a depth and warmth of feeling rarely drawn out on such an occasion. Gov. 
Baldwin was loved by all who had met him in professional life, and in addition 
to the admiration for himself, it was felt that his death, in connection with that 
of General Kimberly, which occurred but a few weeks ago, made a sad break in 
a bar noted for its abilitj', and nearly equally for its high-toned courtesy and up- 
rightness of practice. 

Judge Foster, the State Attornej', offered the following resolutions, which 
were unanimously passed; 

Resolved, That we have heard with deep and abiding sorrow of the death of the Hon. Roger 
Sherman Baldwin, who has been for many years without a superior at the Bar of this Court and 
that of the State at large ; and who, besides his eminent professional attainments, has been the 
honored Cliief Magistrate of this State, and one of its Senators in the Congress of the United 
States. 

Resolved, That we cherish with affectionate and most respectful regard the memory of the de- 
ceased, endeared to us by his public as well as private relations, his extensive learning, his love 
of justice, his unswerving integrity, and the uniform consistency and urbanity that have adorned 
his character as a jurist, a statesman, and a philanthropist. 

Residved, That in token of our regard for his memory, we will attend the funeral of the de- 
ceased in a body, and that we respectfully request the Superior Court, now in session, to adjourn. 

Resolved, That the Court be requested to order these Resolutions to be entered upon its min- 
utes, and that the Secretary of this meeting transmit a copy of them to the family of the deceased, 
and furnish a like copy to the newspapers of this city for publication. 

REMARKS OF HON. E, K. FOSTER. 

These resolutions, Mr. Chairman, doubtless embody the sentiment of this en- 
tire Bar. I cannot assume that there is ?inj' one member of this Bar, however 
long or however short his term of practice, who can dissent from any of the posi- 
tions taken in the resolutions. I might content myself simply with offering 
tliem, and let them pass to a vote without a word. Yet, although unprepared, I 
cannot forbear a single word. All that is there stated is true. It is not the 
language of eulogium merely, it is the language that comes from the heart. A 
great man — an eminent man — a learned man — a pure man — a spotless man, was 



31 

the late Governor Baldwin. I have seen him from childhood. He was among 
the earliest of those I recollect. He was made executor in the will of my father, 
whom I never knew. Among the earliest events that I remember, was a visit to 
his office in the Glebe Building, being sent to him by my mother. I have seen 
him all my lifetime. I lived in his immediate vicinity for nine years. For 
twenty years I have met liim at this Bar, and I cannot give full utterance to the 
feelings which possess me. It is not the time to speak for the sake of speaking, 
but I cannot omit to notice, in a little of detail, some of the characteristics of our 
departed friend. His industry was unsurpassed ; the purity of his life, of his 
thoughts and of his actions, no one could question. It was as unsullied as the mir- 
ror. His learning was profound ; his bearing courteous. I do not know that 
any here have ever suffered at his hands any act of discourtesy. It never has 
been my experience. His love of justice was eminent. Allow me here to men- 
tion a little circumstance which bears honorable testimony to the deceased. Not 
three months since, I was asking a gentleman, formerly a member of this Bar, whom 
he placed first and foremost at our State Bar for power and strength. It would 
not become me in this presence to state all that he said, but this he did say, that 
tmless Governor Baldwin gets an intimation or thought that his client is not 
exactly honest, I know not one more prominent; but if he gets a suspicion of 
that kind in his brain he is good for nothing. That was high praise. He would 
not allow himself to be accessory to any man who was endeavoring to get that 
which did not belong to him justly. Although his condition has been such for 
several weeks that we have heard from day to day that his recovery was doubt- 
ful, yet the blow is to us a stunning one. He was here on the occasion of the 
dedication of this Hall. He was here on a like occasion to the present, to honor 
the memory of another deceased brother. He was here aj^parently in the full 
vigor of health, activity, and life. Sickness never visited him. The day before 
his death his oldest surviving son told me his father was never sick an hour be- 
fore in his life. He was as vigorous at the age of seventy as at the age of forty, 
to all human appearances. A member of the bar some four months ago called 
my attention to Gov. Baldwin as he was passing with his active, elastic steji, and 
said to me, " notice the Governor ; he will be j^racticing at eighty, when you and 
I are gone." I assented, and thought so, but the blow came. It came suddenly, 
it came like the thunderbolt. It struck this man of might with the fatal dart. 
His strength, jjower, jiassed away. He dropped away. He is gone — gone. 
Death has moved rapidly among us. IngersoU, Kimberly, Baldwin — all are gone ! 
Sir, I trust we may take the lessons the events furnish, and all find in the virtues 
and characters of the illustrious deceased, a fit example for imitation. 

KEMAEKS OF HON. HENKT B. IIAEEISON. 

Mk. Cii.urman : — I beg the privilege of seconding these resolutions. I speak, 
not because it is possible for me to add anything to what has been so well said 
by the learned State Attorney, but because I feel tnovedto speak, and cannot re- 
frain from speaking. 

It has been well said that Governor Baldwin Avas a great lawyer. I regret 
that the attention of the Supreme Court, during its session yesterday, was not 
called to the death of a man who was the peer, at least, if not the superior of 



32 

any judge who ever sat upon that bench, or any lawyer who ever practiced be- 
fore any Court in tlie State of Connecticut. 

It is well, Sir, to eulogize the dead who die honorable and honored. It is well 
to pause a moment, as the funeral train passes, and utter a word of eulogy over 
one whose life has deserved eulogy from our lips. It is well that the young 
should be inspired by the manly hope that when their career is ended those who 
know them best will not foi-get to speak for them a word of praise and of regret. 

Governor Baldwin was not merely a great lawyer. He was an upright, a just, 
a conscientious, and an honorable man. No praise of his personal qualities can 
be too high for us to utter; — and. Sir, although his manner was reserved, (a cir- 
cumstance attributable undoubtedly to tlie innate modesty of his simple, manly 
character), so that the public at large did not know him as y.ou knew him, and as 
most of us knew him, yet I believe that the truly upright, honest, and liberal 
man always possesses a kind and tender heart. Such, at any rate, as you know, 
Mr. Chairman, and as I know, was the heart of Governor Baldwin. 

Governor Baldwin was distinguished, not only as a lawyer and as a citizen, but 
as a Chief Magistrate of this State, and as her representative in the Senate of the 
United States. Into that Senate he carried the same high tone, the same fidelity 
to duty, which he always elsewhere displayed. He took into that Senate those 
rich resources of language which were always at his command ; and he took 
with him a mind profoundly versed in the history of his country, and es- 
pecially in the history of his native State. He knew, Sir — (what citizens 
of other States seldom care to remember and perhaps seldom know, and what 
we ourselves, some of us, are too apt to forget, and, at all events, often 
fivil properly to appreciate), — he knew that the State which he represented 
had a history, civil and military, which enabled her to compare favorably, not 
only with any other State in New England or in this Union, but with any com- 
monwealth that has ever existed on earth. Whoever else might speak ill of the 
State which had so highly honored him — whoever else might keep silence when 
she was spoken against — he was always the watchful, the eager, the sleepless 
guardian of her interests and her honor. 

Not from us only, but from the State of Connecticut, one tear, at least, is due 
to the memory of the man who, upon one occasion, never to be forgotten, when a 
Senator from Virginia ventured to institute offensive comparisons between that 
State and the State of Connecticut, caught up the gauntlet before it touched the 
ground, and startled the Senate by the eloquence, the dignity, the vehemence, 
and the overwhelming power of his rebuke, silencing and scorching and paralyz- 
ing the tongue that had dared to beslime with its venom the fair fame of this 
ancient Commonwealth. 

Governor. Baldwin was a ti'ue son of Connecticut. His memory deserves all 
honor from Connecticut and from every one of her children. 

Perhaps, Mr. Chairman, I have sj^oken too long, but I could not refrain from 
speaking, and could not say less. 

EEMARKS OF CHARLES IVES, ESQ. 

Ma. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Bar: — I can add nothing except the 
expression of my hearty concurrence to the remarks tliat have been so opportune- 



33 

ly made ; and yet I cannot let the occasion pass without dropping at least a green 
leaf in honor of the illustrious dead. 

The ancient Egyptians, if my memory serves me, before they permitted any of 
the marks of respect and honor to the deceased, common among them, held a sort 
of inquest, to which all were invited who had anything to say derogatory to the 
character of the departed ; and none but those who could pass such an ordeal un- 
harmed had sepulchral honors. We who claim more knowledge, more virtue, 
and a higher civilization, are much in the habit of placing the virtuous and the 
vicious at death upon the same footing, and if we hold inquests it is for the pur- 
pose of ascertaining the amount of real and personal estate which is to change 
hands. If the old Egyptian custom prevailed with us to day, and all who have 
known the illustrious man, whose departure we now mourn, during any part of 
his long and active career upon eartli, were challenged to produce all and every- 
thing that could be learned, calculated to stain the brightness and purity of a 
seemingly faultless character, I do not believe the man, woman, or child lives who 
could come forward in response to such a summons. While for natural gifts and 
the rich fruits of legal scholarship and experience he had no sujjcrior in the State, 
he was still more and justly eujinent for his moral rectitude. Though he had recently 
reached the limit of his threescore years and ten, yet he seemed to me capable of 
vigorous labor for a score of years more. I was engaged in a case with him 
which he has left half tried. I cannot realize that his labors on earth are ended, 
and that we shall see him and listen to his voice at this Bar no more. 

A few weeks ago the white walls of this new and beautiful room were at their 
dedication draped with crape for the loss of one of our oldest and most honorable 
and gifted practitioners. How little did we then think that at the same first term of 
the Court held in this room, the badges of mourning for another equally eminent 
■would be seen here again ! Yet such is life, and so uncertain the future ! 

Between sixteen and seventeen years ago, when I first came to the Bar, there 
were four illustrious men who were its fathers. They were generally upon one 
side or the other of everj' important case. No Bar in the State — I think none in 
the Union — could boast their superiors in any respect. Three of these are gone. 
They have finished their labors, and are gathered to their fathers, and to the 
spirits of the illustrious dead. God grant that the time may be far distant, when 
we shall be again called to the performance of such a duty. These men left an im- 
press upon the Bar of New Haven County which I trust will always remain. In 
the severe struggles incident to the trials of imjiortant causes, where the attorney 
makes the cause of his client for the time being his own, there is always danger 
that friends and associates may for the moment forget the proprieties of the occa- 
sion, and what is due to themselves, so far as to apply to each other sharp and 
unkind remarks. Those fathers of this Bar to whom I have referred controlled 
and commanded their own spirits so as to be always eminently courteous to each 
other ; and to them we are indebted for the fact that our Bar has been so free 
from unpleasant and unprofitable persona] collisions and animosities. I trust that 
the influence of their example in this respect, and as patterns of high and honora- 
ble practice generally, will be felt for many years to come, as it has been in the 
past. 

When a giant of the forest falls, after having monopolized and exhausted for 



34 

one or more centuries the tree food in its vicinity, a large vacancy is left, which 
cannot be filled for years. Saplings spring up around its stump, and nature seems 
to struggle long and unsuccessfully to supply its place. So — with all due deference 
and respect to my brethren who are here assembled, and whom I do not tlunk 
by any means inferior to other practitioners elsewhere, of their official age — when 
I look at the vacant places of those eminent men to whom I have alluded, I feel 
that death has made vacancies that cannot be supplied, that he has " quenched 
stars " whose light in the legal firmament will be missed and mourned by their 
brethren and the community for years to come. 

Large harvests of death have been gathered for two years past, npon the fields- 
of bloody strife, in many parts of our country. Though our Bar is honorably 
and ably represented in the army, no member of it, I believe, has thus far, while 
thus engaged, lost either life or limb, and yet amid these peaceful scenes, in the 
most striking way, are we taught the sad lesson of mortality. I trust its teach- 
ings will not be lost upon us, and that we shall not only mourn, but emulate the 
justly honored and distinguished dead, whose lives were to so large extent spent 
in practicing at and giving character to the Bar of New Haven County. 

REMARKS OF CHARLES H. FOWLER, ESQ. 

Mr. Chairman: — A few weeks ago I looked on a scene like this, comparatively 
a spectator, but I am not merely a spectator now, for I kneiv Governor Baldwin. 
Among the kindest encouragements I have received, almost the first was from 
that honored man. I can never forget them. We shall miss his stately tread, 
we shall see that giant form no more. The cold grave claims him. He is dead ! 
God grant that we, the younger members of the Bar, may profit by his bright 
example. It has been a guide to the professional life I have but just now en- 
tered upon. I believe I shall always profit by the example of that eminent man. 
He speaks to me in tones that those who have been his familiar and everyday ac- 
quaintances cannot feel. We see him pass away. We feel his loss, but we feel 
also his bright example. We lost in him a friend and a pattern of excellence. I 
will not say more. I desire simply to pay this, my small, my honest tribute to 
the memory of this excellent man. May we all of us, when we shall lie down at 
last in the dust — may we all of us have a record as bright, as pure and beautiful 
as his. 



After the adjournment of the Bar meeting, Justice Seymour took his seat on 
the Bench, and the Court was opened. In accordance with the vote of the meet 
ing, Hon. Ralph I. Ingersoll presented the Resolutions to the Court, and spoke as- 
follows : 



REMARKS OF MR, INGERSOLL. 



May it please your Honor : — I am instructed by the members of the Bar of 
New Haven County to present to the Court certain Resolutions that I hold in my 
hand, which have been read to the Bar, and have been unanimously adopted. 
[Mr. Ingersoll read the Resolutions.] 

Sir, these Resolutions embody the united sentiments of the Bar of this County, 



35 

and could they be submitted to our brethren in the State of Connecticut, in other 
counties, you know, /know, \oe all know, that they would meet with a response 
as unanimous as that which has been accorded them here. Sir, I may be per- 
mitted to say a word here in reference to this distinguished man, for my relations 
with him personally, professionally, and as a fellow-citizen, have been longer 
than those of any one else within the sound of my voice. 

Sir, I have known him from his boyhood, and in a recent interview I had with 
him, but a short time before he was taken away, he took from his pocket a list of 
the pupils of the school which we attended in our boyhood. He read them to me. 
I recollect the names of but three who survived at that time. He was one, a 
gentleman living in New Haven the second, and my humble self the third. And, 
Sir, it was these reminiscences that occasionally passed between us, of which the 
world knew nothing, that endeared me to the man. I respected, I honored, Sir, 
I loved him. I cannot realize that he has been taken from us. No, Sir ! from the 
time that I visited him in his early sickness, and when I feared the stroke of 
death was upon him, there has hardly been an hour, night or day, that he has 
not been in my thoughts. Waking, I have expected to see him coming into my 
office, and in my dreams at night I have been with him. 

Sir, these are personal matters, perhaps hardly to be talked of; but the occa^ 
eion seemed to call for them. I have kaown him well, and what lias been said 
by my brethren at the Bar meeting and in the hearing of the Judge, is every 
word true. I respond to it heartily. Sir, I have been associated with Governor 
Baldwin at this Bar, now for nearly fifty years. My brethren who surround me 
know that probably there were no two other members of the Bar who have been 
so frequently associated in causes, and who at the same time have been so frequent- 
ly opposed to each other, where there was a collision, I trust an honorable and 
manly collision, in argument. I know, and we all know, that the man never lived 
who felt his causes more thoroughly than Governor Baldwin. I also have my 
feelings, perhaps they were more ardent formerly than now, but it is one of the 
consolations of my life, one of my best and most consoling reflections, that during 
that long practice, the first word of uukindness, the first discourteous sentiment 
or look never, never ! passed between us. Nor do I believe that Governor Bald- 
win ever even in his thoughts entertained any but the most kind sentiments 
towards mj^self : for I know the man well enough to know that it was not in him 
to be otherwise than he appeared. 

Since this Court commenced another distinguished member of the Bar has been 
taken from us. On that occasion Governor Baldwin was in my office, and at my 
request penned the Resolutions that were introduced to the Bar on that occasion. 
I had thrown together something I thought might be presented to the Bar, but 
as soon as he presented his I told him those were what we wanted. He had the 
courtesy and kindness to say, " I like yours the best." I said " No ; I am the Chair- 
man of the Bar," and I put them in the fire. Oh ! how little did I think that, be- 
fore this Court should adjourn, my brethren would be doing for him what 
he was then doing for his and my friend and professional associate. If the 
thought had crossed the mind as to either of us, that one or the other were to go, 
the strong probability must have been that the summons would first come to the 
senior of the two. 



36 

Sir, it is a sad reflection, and it touched me peculiarly, when alluded to by the 
gentleman who has spoken on this subject, that of those who not lon^ ago were 
the senior members of this Bar — there was Gov. Baldwin, Gen. Kimberly, and 
another who was boimd to me by more than professional ties (whom it has 
pleased God to take before me) — of the four I was the senior of the whole, and 
yet a merciful God has permitted me to stand here, a sjjared monument. Sir, 
what an admonition ! This I will say, as I cling to life with the tenacity that 
human nature, with all its infirmities, does, and unfit as I feel myself to enter the 
future, yet, Sir, could I feel in my conscience that I had the purity, the spotless in- 
tegrity, the Christian virtues of this distinguished gentleman who now sleeps in 
death, much as I dread the future, I would willingly agree now that my poor 
frame should be this day enclosed in its coflRn. 

Sir, I will not detain you with further remarks. I could not refrain from saying 
this much. I might say more, less I could not. I leave these Resolutions, by di- 
rection of the Bar, with your Honor, and request that they may be entered on 
the Records of the Court. 



Judge Seymour briefly expressed his full concurrence in the Resolutions and 
speeches, and recognized the superiority of Gov. Baldwin as a lawyer and a 
citizen. He ordered the Resolutions to be placed on record. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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